Can’t Count On Anyone To Help Me

by Eric Chaet

Can’t count on anyone
to help me but myself
can’t count
on cool posers
who gain
by being fashionable
& popular
on the earnest
& serious
clinging to jobs
useful or not
that they do
well or not
not celebrities
or manipulators
of celebrity pawns
not bitter left-behinds
nor wannabes
nor the most
self-reliant
who mind & patrol
their own enterprises, investments, peripheries
not rivals I’m aware of or not
nor those struggling with rivals of their own
not the weak & ineffectual
nor those who often get their ways, wise or not
not those who value the arts—or deeds!—
by consensus of those who judge by consensus
nor those who think the arts are for the deluded
or deeds only for powerful people, & they’re not powerful
not those who know the price of everything, value of nothing
not the altruistic nor those who think altruism is for the deluded
not the winners, not the losers
not those who believe what they’ve been taught about politics
nor those campaigning for political advantage
nor those who think that politics is just another scam
nor those who believe that war is just politics by other means
or politics war by other means
not those who believe in this or that religion
nor those who believe in no religion
not those who are hard nor those who are soft
not those afraid to commit
or committed to any project, team, organization
not those who believe in life after death
nor those who don’t believe in life after death
not those who believe in virtue
nor those who think virtue is a joke
nor those who think they’ve mastered the securities exchanges
or that the securities exchanges are just casinos
not those who start rich nor those who start poor
not those who start healthy
nor those who start sick or disabled
not those who seem to navigate or actually navigate
some commercial niche confidently
not those who command millions of people
or billions of dollars
nor those who cleverly thrive with resources so few
that those who command millions or billions
couldn’t survive with so little
not those born with useful connections
nor those born without useful connections
not those who were well advised in their youths
nor those who were poorly advised
or not advised or even abused
not those who fell for indoctrination
nor those who saw thru it
not those who know my name
nor those who aren’t aware I exist
not those who think well of me
nor those who disrespect me.

Can’t count on what I’ve done til now nor on my talents
doesn’t matter that everyone’s underestimated me
they underestimate approximately everyone
they don’t overestimate
I’ve underestimated myself most times
(unless this is the end)
counting on help from others
as tho they had more power than I
to help me achieve what I tried to achieve
& get what I needed to continue
always seeking some way
to transform what I didn’t want a part in
& some way to survive in the meantime
without getting trapped in what I aimed to transform.

Can’t count on anyone to help me but myself
nor make myself impervious, either
to help I might induce by my efforts
generous help or offered in hopes of mutual advantage
even help I don’t earn
help I’ll never count on
can’t count on anyone to help me but myself.